5/07/2001 @ 10:24AM

Top Of The News: For Lucent, Bloody Sunday

A month ago, there were rumors
Lucent Technologies
had filed for bankruptcy. Those rumors were bunk, but this is for real: On Sunday, the telecom equipment and software maker said its chief financial officer,
Deborah
Hopkins
Deborah Hopkins
, “[left] the company to pursue other opportunities.”

Until very recently, the opportunities at Lucent
looked pretty good for Hopkins, 46, one of the most prominent businesswomen in America. She, and not Chief Executive
Henry
Schacht
Henry Schacht
, was front and center in denying the false bankruptcy talk. At that time, the company was trumpeting her achievements in establishing a $6.5 billion line of credit.

“The rumors that Lucent is filing for bankruptcy are baseless and irresponsible,” she said at the time. Since then, the company’s share price has rebounded from a low of $5.50 to Friday’s close of $11.15. Of course, the shares are still down 83% from their 52-week high.

In January, Lucent announced a restructuring plan to cut 10,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce. The company reported a $3.7 billion loss on March 31. This figure included $2.7 billion in restructuring and other charges.

On Thursday, the federal government charged two Lucent scientists and a Chinese man working in the United States with stealing software and selling a copy of a Lucent product in China. This had nothing to do with Hopkins, but it is more bad news for the one-time high-flying seller of telecommunications systems.

The company remains in the midst of a painful and uncertain restructuring. It also faces rumors of a merger with
Alcatel
, a Paris-based telecom company. But it will go forward without Hopkins, who is being replaced by
Frank
D’Amelio
Frank D’Amelio
after just a year on the job.

“Now that Lucent’s restructuring program and the required financing are in place, it’s the natural time for me to leave and pursue other opportunities,” Hopkins said in a statement. She also said she wants to spend time with her children.

But people familiar with the company say she was forced out by personality conflicts with senior officials at Lucent. Indeed, the company’s statements could not settle on whether she resigned or was fired, avoiding both terms. That the CFO is leaving mid-restructuring is a sign of turmoil–so is making an announcement of this kind on a Sunday.

Lucent recently spun off
Agere Systems
, its microelectronics unit, for $3.6 billion. Its debt is trading at junk bond levels, but still, the bankruptcy rumors were otherworldly.

Hopkins was hired in April 2000 by
Richard
McGinn
Richard McGinn
, the former CEO, who was fired himself in October. Her replacement, D’Amelio, 43, is president of Lucent’s switching business and onetime CFO of Lucent’s $17 billion network systems unit. He is a 22-year veteran of Lucent and its predecessor companies.

Schacht served as CEO of Lucent between 1995 and 1998; he stepped down and returned to the company last year. He was on the
AT&T
board for years while Lucent was part of that company.

Hopkins was hired away from
Boeing
, where she was CFO. It seems she remained an outsider. She is even more outside now.